Red River quotes

View Quote Teeler: A man can't eat this kind of food. After we lost another grub wagon, we should have turned back.
Dunson: Well, we didn't turn back and we're not goin' to. And even if we had, I couldn't replace what we lost. I'm broke. Got nothin' to buy it with. So you're on short rations and bad coffee. And you're gonna be until we finish the drive. And you're gonna finish it...Like it or not, that's it.

View Quote Teeler: Give me that gun. Somebody give me - I'll kill him. Let me go! He was gonna kill me! He wasn't gonna give me a chance - [Matt slaps him]
Matt: Turn him loose. Cherry, give me that gun. Here's what you've been trying for. All right, use it! Go on, you got what you wanted. What are you waiting for? If you don't want to live, all you have to do is - You're a lucky man, Teeler. This is how close it came.
Teeler: Matt, we're gettin' as crazy as he is. [Teeler returns the gun to Matt]
Matt: Keep it. You want to finish the drive?
Teeler: Where are we goin'?
Matt: Abilene.
Teeler: Who's headin' it?
Matt: I am.
Buster: What about Dunson?
Matt: He stays here. We're takin' the herd.
Teeler: That's good enough for me.
Matt: Groot? How about you?
Groot: You was wrong, Mr. Dunson. I've been with ya a lot of years. And up till now, right or wrong, I've always done like ya said. Got to be kind of a habit with me, I guess, 'cuz that's why I'm stayin' with ya.
Dunson: Go on with 'em.
Groot: Thanks. Thanks for makin' it easy on me. All right, men, I'll be comin' with you.
Matt: Throw 'em on the trail, start driving. Buster, you wait here till I get back. [He rides off to help round up the herd]
Cherry: If you come lookin' for me, Mr. Dunson, I'll be in Abilene.

View Quote Tess: I know you've only a few hours, but listen for just a minute, that's all, and then I won't talk about it anymore. Just a minute. He hasn't changed his mind, Matthew.
Matt: I didn't think he would.
Tess: We saw the railroad and I thought, I thought it might make a difference, but it didn't. Nothing would. He's like something you can't move. Even I've gotten to believe it's got to happen - your meeting. I was gonna ask you to run but, no I'm not, I'm not. It wouldn't do any good. You're too much like him. Oh, stop me, Matthew! Stop me! God bless you, Matthew. [He kisses her]

View Quote Tess: I'll take care of Mr. Dunson. [Dunson is surprised she knows his name] I believe it's your beef we're eating.
Dunson: Who told you that?
Tess: The man you promised to kill.
Dunson: Did he tell you that too?
Tess: You're tired, aren't you? Tired, hungry and just a little bit irritable. You'll feel better after you eat. We'll talk then.
[Dunson notices her bracelet]
Dunson: How'd you get that away from him?
Tess: I stole it...
Dunson: So you stole that bracelet. How did you get it?
Tess: Would you really like to know, Mr. Dunson?
Dunson: How'd you get it?
Tess: I got it in the rain eight days ago, before he took your herd across that river and left.
Dunson: I'm wondering whether to believe you.
Tess: I don't care whether you do or not.
Dunson: I believe that.
Tess: You wanna hear more?
Dunson: Go ahead.
Tess: It was raining. If it hadn't rained, I wouldn't be here talking to you. He wouldn't be here where you could find him to kill him. You still intend to kill him, don't you?
Dunson: Nothing you can say is gonna...
Tess: I didn't say anything...
Dunson: So he went off and left ya. I didn't give him that much credit. Are you in love with him?
Tess: I thought you'd ask that. Can a woman love a man who'd go off and leave her?
Dunson: Well, she, she shouldn't...
Tess: I wanted to go with him, but he had work to do. He had to get your cattle to market. Said I wasn't strong enough to go and nothing I could do or say to make him change his mind. But I wanted to go with him. I wanted him so much that...
Dunson: That you felt like you had knives stickin' in ya.
Tess: How did you know that? I suppose other people have felt that way before.
Dunson: They have.

View Quote Tess: Now will you tell me something, Mr. Dunson?
Dunson: What?
Tess: Why do you want to kill him?
Dunson: Because he's a thief.
Tess: Do you think he thinks that?
Dunson: He should. I picked him up in the brush leading a cow. That's fourteen years ago. Taught him all I could. He knew what I was planning. Saw what I was building. He knew that someday, it'd all be his. His land, his cattle, the whole thing. Even talked of a woman as men will talk. A strong woman who could bear him sons, a woman like you.
Tess: Why did you want him to have a son?
Dunson: Because I built something. Built it with my own hands. And I can't live forever and live to see it grow. I thought I had a son. But I haven't and I want one.
Tess: I'm sorry for you, Mr. Dunson. Very sorry.

View Quote Tess: Stop it. Stop it. Stop makin' a holy...Stop it I said. I'm mad, good and mad. And who wouldn't be. You Dunson, pretendin' you're gonna kill him. Why, it's the last thing in the world you...Stay still. I'm mad I told ya. And you Matthew Garth, gettin' your face all beat up and all bloody. You oughta see how, you oughta see how silly you look, like, like somethin' the cat dragged - STAY STILL - What a fool I've been, expectin' trouble for days when, when anybody with half a mind would know you two love each other. [To Dunson] It took somebody else to shoot ya. He wouldn't do it. Are ya hurt?
Dunson: No, just nicked the...
Tess: Then stay still. No, don't stay still. I changed my mind. Go ahead. Beat each other crazy. Maybe it will put the sense in both of ya. Go ahead. Go on. Do it!

View Quote Tess: Why does he [Dunson] think that way?
Matt: Because he got to a place where, see, he'd taken empty land used for nothin', made it the biggest ranch in the state of Texas. Fought to keep it...one bull and one cow, that's all he started with...After he'd done all that, gotten what he'd been after for so long, it wasn't worth anything...So he started this drive. Everybody said, 'you can't make it. You'll never get there.' He was the only one believed we could. He had to believe it. So he started thinking one way, his way. He told men what to do and made 'em do it. Otherwise, we wouldn't have got as far as we did. He started 'em for Missouri and all he knew was he had to get there. I took his herd away from him.
Tess: You love him, don't you? He must love you. That wouldn't be hard. [She kisses Matt on the lips] Did you like that?
Matt: I've always been kind of slow in making up my mind.
Tess: Maybe I can help. [They kiss again]
Matt: I don't need any more help but will you do that again? [They kiss again]

View Quote [about Matt and Cherry] They was having some fun - peculiar kind of fun, sizing each other up for the future. Them two's gonna tangle for certain and when they do, it ain't gonna be pretty because they got a thousand miles to do it in.

View Quote [to Bunk] I could take the end of your nose off just as easy. A man in your age stealin' sugar!

View Quote [to Bunk] You started all this...we're three or four hundred head short and you killed Dan Latimer...stealin' sugar like a kid. Well, they whip kids to teach 'em better.

View Quote [to Bunk] Your sweet tooth is almost as bad as having a whiskey tongue or liking a woman.

View Quote [to Matt] But your heart's soft. Too soft. It may get you hurt some day.

View Quote [to Matt] Go on, draw. I said 'DRAW'! [Long pause] Then I'll make ya. You're soft! Won't anything make a man out of ya? [He seizes Matt's gun from his holster and throws it away] You once told me never to take your gun away from ya. [He hits Matt in the face several times] You yellow-bellied, cotton-livered...

View Quote [to Matt] I asked you before why you were so mad. Is it, is it because your cattle, the cattle Cherry told me about, might run off? Or maybe, maybe you don't like the idea of helping, helping a bunch of women.

View Quote [to Matt] What are you so mad about? I asked you why you're angry. Is it because - because some of your men might get hurt, killed maybe?